Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-06-10

IA ApsI picture III ll6 Gu6Ctb dlll
was furnished mankind when your Governor
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, (applause), whom men
ton as representing the best and highest typ
OF Southern manhood, after the war took OF
his coat and put his hal to the pillow for tn
first time. tapplause,)
God who gave us our path and motion il
the universe and said ''By the sweat of tn.
face shalt thou eat bread,n will smile on
people who recognize and respect the dignit.
of labor.
Amid the elder generation before me I rec
ognlze the faces of those who must have beer
my comrades of the war. We certainly were
comrades in several relations. In our cam
paigns and battles the same sky covered us
| the same storms drenched us, we were be-
spattered by the same mud and begrimed by
the same dust and our marches and fatigues
were cotemporaneous and coequal. We as.
saulted each other until we became well &C.
quainted. (applause.) With regard to the per-
soasd1 feelings existing between those who
| were acquainted with each other Or were
friends when the war divided them, may
mention
A CONVERSATION ONCE HAD WITH PRESIDENT
LINCOLN,
which may be of interest TWAS shortly after
the first great cavalry battle of the war, at
Kelley's Ford, on the Rappahannoek, early in
1868. The President came down to visit the
Army of the Potomac opposite Fredericksburg
and to review it. He did me the honor to
| send for me to visit him in the evening. We
had an interview of an hour in his tent He
| asked me many questions about the army, and
/ especially the Cavalry Service and its great
expense. He expressed great interest in the
| fight we had had at Kelley's Ford, and enqui-
red particularly about the Confederate COM
manders. I told him how the fight came to
pass, and showed him a note which I had re-
ceived from General Fitzhugh Lee, with re-
ference to his wounded. He put on his spec
tacles and read it carefully. Then he asked ::
"Were you and General Lee friends?"
Certainly" said I, ''always had been"
s'What would happen" he asked, 'Should
you meet on the battle feld?"
zone or both of US would be badly hurt or
| killed." I said, 'obliged to be, Mr.. Presi-
dent
He leaned that picturesque and mournful
face of his on his hand, and after pause, said
with emotion, "Oh, my God, what dreadful
thing is war like this, where personal
''friends must slay each other and die as
friendsln
I told him that undoubtedly Lee thought
he was doing his duty, and I knew I was do
| ing mine"
eyes" said Mr.. Lincoln, ST understand
| your feelings, but there are many who would
| think that you ought to hate each other"
Finally, he said: s'General Averell, wish
you would give me this letter of Lee's''
''Surely, take it, Mr. President" I replied;
and I have been told by one of his biographers
that he carried the note in his pocket for
long time, and would frequently show it.
This statement of personal relations and
feelings seemed to make a revelation to Mr..
standing large enough to consider every emo
ton of all the people in this country, which
he SO longed should be a nation. (applause.)
TIE MEMORIES OF THE FOUR YEARS WAR
which cluster above the graves of the s'Blue"
and the "Gray," are identical and equally
dear to the surviving comrades of each. There
is one grand memory which we may ever en-
Joy, the fortitude and devotion of American
soldiers, North and South, and their manhood
in battle will not fail to awaken the admiration
| of mankind so long as any people are called
| Americans. (applause.) The grandest efficient
result of the war was to fortify our nation with
a public opinion which has since environed
, the world. Where is the nation that does not
recognize its power? or that can afford to dis
regard it. The migrating thousands who are
pouring into our country from all nations and
races, attest the universal and continued effect
| and grandeur of that opinion. It needs no
laundering navy nor consuming - to make
it manifest.
Our future path as nation ssgl Pun-
trodden by any other, and destiny is
beyond human ken. Our Industries will be-
come more varied and definite, and as their
equation approaches perfection, the Nation
will near the long repose of contentment, and
the rhythm of free and requited labor will
move the peoples of the earth to higher So
cial development and to more general union
of mankind.
The persistent and universal force on earth
which moves people to build churches, is the
same which has assembled you to-day-the
worship of the Godlike in man;-the recogni-
ton of the Image in which we are created.
| is not an inspiration, it is a necessary condi-
| ton of social existence. It is the threshold
of religion. Outside this threshold men are
| brutes. Inside we behold all that man has
! discovered and created-Society, Govern
ment, Language, Literature, Science, and
| Art.
| This undying mother of civilization, Re
| ligion-is the first necessity experienced and
| the last comfort relinq1lished in every human
| life. In this mothers arms we are suspended
| between two intinites, as in hammock one
end of which is held by Memory, the other
| by Hope The history of this Nation, the
| only one which can now be studied from it's
| beginning, is already a new and original page
in the story of the world. Not yet hundred
years old, and on new continent, nation
that employs two million men in a social war,
and. succeeds in uniting itself and knitting
its people together is certainly, original
Another wonderful thing is that the very
soldiers of both armies who did the fighting
enjoy the readiest mutual confidence and
brotherly esteem, and mayhap in spite of in
different and ignorant politicians, they and
their children will become the strongest social
i cement of our permanent union
| We dashed together like waves on rocks,
! We fought till the ground was red;
.oati in, ,cI,.,i lla,i I,,4